The Supreme Court on Monday took strong note of former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi being made a party to a PIL and seeking of an in-house inquiry against him for dismissing a plea earlier related to a service dispute.
The litigant levelled allegations against the former CJI following which a bench comprising Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma asked the security personnel to escort him out of the courtroom
Justice Gogoi, the 46th CJI and the first from a north-eastern state, said it was not the requirement of the Supreme Court that judges 'reach out to our citizenry through the press'.
A bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said that nearly two years have passed and the possibility of retrieving electronic records is very less in the probe.
He will be the first former Chief Justice of India to be nominated to Rajya Sabha. Former Chief Justice Ranganath Misra was also a Rajya Sabha member but he was elected on a Congress party ticket.
The Supreme Court has announced that a nine-judge bench will begin final hearings on petitions related to discrimination against women in religions, including the Sabarimala Temple case, starting April 7.
Justice Gogoi as the Chief Justice has a tenure of 13 months and 15 days while Justice Bobde, who will be sworn in as CJI on November 18, will have a tenure of about 18 months.
Justice Gogoi sat in the bench with chief justice-designate S A Bobde for just four minutes, during which Supreme Court Bar Association president Rakesh Khanna expressed gratitude on behalf of the Bar to the chief justice
The Congress accused the Centre of making a serious assault on the basic structure of the Constitution, saying the action subsumes the independence of the judiciary.
"My presence in Parliament will be an opportunity to project the views of the judiciary before the legislature and vice versa," he said.
He took exception to an "ideological group of people", activists, intellectuals for giving "identification marks" to as to "who is an independent judge" and said that according to them a judge must be necessarily anti-establishment.
The minister further said that those who "peddle falsehood to destroy the institution are not dealt with in an exemplary manner, this trend will only accelerate."
Former chief justices of India, who have conveyed their views to a parliamentary committee on the bill proposing simultaneous polls, have endorsed the constitutionality of the 'one nation, one election' concept but have raised concerns over its various aspects, including the power given to the Election Commission, and offered suggestions.
The CJI said that after being a judge for around two decades, he had a bank balance of Rs 6.80 lakh.
Thirty-six former judges have called on people, including parliamentarians, to denounce opposition leaders' move to impeach Madras High Court judge Justice G R Swaminathan, saying such an attempt would undermine democracy and judicial independence.
Asserting that he prays regularly, the CJI said, "Believe me, if you have faith, God will always find a way."
Justice Gogoi's tenure as judge and as CJI was marked by some controversies and personal allegations but that never came in his way of his judicial work that was reflected in the last few days when benches headed by him delivered some path-breaking judgments.
A Rs 1 crore defamation case and a petition seeking an injunction to restrain his autobiography has been filed against Rajya Sabha MP and former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi by Assam Public Works (APW) president Aabhijeet Sharma at a local court in Guwahati.
The former CJI was criticised for being part of a special bench set up to hear a suo motu case titled 'In Re: Matter of Great Public Importance Touching upon the Independence of the Judiciary' on a Saturday on April 20, 2019.
The BJP, however, denied the former three-time state chief minister's assertion on Ranjan Gogoi who was nominated as a Rajya Sabha member by the government in March.
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Tuesday remarked that once judges demit office whatever they say is just opinion and is not binding, after former CJI Ranjan Gogoi's comments that the basic structure doctrine was debatable was flagged in the Supreme Court.
Justice Joseph, who had once taken part in an unprecedented presser along with Gogoi, Justices J Chelameswar, Madan B Lokur (all retired) on January 12, 2018 on the functioning of the apex court, made his stand clear on the former CJI accepting nomination to the Upper House.
There was no occasion for the woman to interact directly with the CJI, notes Supreme Court Secretary General S S Kalgaonkar.
A Rajya Sabha member now, Gogoi was earlier being provided with a security cover of the Delhi Police.
Activist Saket Gokhale had sought consent, a condition precedent for initiating criminal contempt proceedings, of the top-most law officer to initiate the case against the former CJI who had reportedly said at an event that the judiciary is "ramshackled" and it is quite unlikely for a person to get a timely verdict.
Justice Gogoi will assume the office on October 3.
Justice Dipak Misra retires on October 2.
Justice Gogoi will be sworn in as the next CJI on October 3, a day after Justice Misra's tenure ends.
Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who has been part of several landmark Supreme Court judgements such as scrapping the electoral bonds scheme and upholding abrogation of Article 370, will be sworn in as the 51st Chief Justice of India on Monday.
Justice Bobde has decided several key cases and was part of the recent historic verdict that cleared the way for the construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya.
According to the sources, the woman has joined the duty and proceeded on leave. All her arrears too have been cleared.
While that created a stir so did the decision on his penultimate day at work with the Supreme Court rechristening its summer vacation "partial court working days", an issue that has led to criticism that the apex court judges enjoyed long breaks.
Rajya Sabha sources said he will take oath at 11 am on Thursday. The former CJI was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by President Ram Nath Kovind on March 16.
He did not give any specific reason for withdrawing from hearing the case.
Justice Gogoi said he has a plan to deal with the backlog of cases and he will "unfold" it soon.
Over 30 women activists have been detained by the police at Mandir Marg Police Station, Delhi.
"We will work out the parameters then we will see as to how mentioning will be done," he said.
Hailing from a family of lawyers from Maharashtra, he was part of a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court which in August 2017 declared the right to privacy as a fundamental right of an individual.
Besides the present CJI Chandrachud, former CJIs Ranjan Gogoi and SA Bobde and former judges Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer were part of the bench which had delivered the historic verdict on November 9, 2019.
Justice Chandrachud also dealt with questions about criticism by eminent lawyers on the allocation of cases to particular judges and 'bench hunting', and said the allocation of cases is not "lawyer-driven" and vowed to maintain the credibility of the institution of the Supreme Court.
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